quasigrecian thoughts

[calimac]

1. Are you interested in my friend's theory that Mark Ruffalo is under 9 years old? He doesn't actually say that, but he's backed himself into a position where it must be so. He has this notion that the Oscars refuse to give Leading Role nominations to juveniles, dating back to the creation of a special juvenile award in the 1930s, and citing Tatum O'Neal and Hallie Steinfeld as examples; but then he has to explain Keisha Castle-Hughes and Quvenzhané Wallis, which he does by postulating exceptions for foreign films or something. I maintain this is nonsense, and that the injustices to O'Neal and Steinfeld are due to the billings on their films, while Whale Rider and Beasts of the Southern Wild had no above-the-title billings. If there is an age threshold below which the Academy will not give a Leading Role nomination, it must be 9, which is how old Wallis was. So if these injustices are limited to juvenile actors, then since Mark Ruffalo had the top above-the-title billing for Spotlight but still got nominated for Supporting and not Leading, he must therefore be under 9 years old.

2. Fun with auto-correct: B's pocket appointment computer insists that what we are taking to the vet next week is not our cat Pippin, but our cat Pipeline.

3. The movie with Meryl Streep as Florence Foster Jenkins has released its first trailer. He may not be recognizable in that get-up, but her accompanist is played by Simon Helberg of Big Bang Theory and Dr. Horrible. What sort of alchemy was required to get the guy who played Moist into a movie with Meryl Streep I can't imagine, but I'm looking forward to the results.

Or maybe I'm not. The trailer omits any sound of Jenkins, or Streep-as-Jenkins, actually singing, so I looked up Jenkins' recording of the Queen of the Night's vengeance aria and quickly wished I hadn't. (I'd heard her before, but one forgets.) I then went looking for a good version to wash the bad taste out, and the best one I found was this stage performance by Diana Damrau (it was her signature role before she retired it), who actually succeeds in making the light coloratura flourishes seem desperately sinister.

Comments

[whswhs.livejournal.com]

My favorite autocorrect error ever was when I typed "superhero" (a word I use moderately often) and Word wanted to change it to "superego." "Batman is the superego of Gotham City."

[irontongue.livejournal.com]

Ah, "before she retired it" wasn't in the post when I read it the first time. She's a terrific singer; really too bad she canceled out of Lucia di Lammermoor in SF last fall.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

After originally writing this, I found an article on her (in German) and that's what it said.

[irontongue.livejournal.com]

Yep.

[irontongue.livejournal.com]

Tough to find a soprano who can get the triplets toward the end of the aria right, too.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

One does not forget: I first heard FFJ nearly forty years ago, when I had never seen an opera nor heard the Queen of the Night, and I knew her to be awful even then; and I still remember - and celebrate - the awfulness, tho' I have barely heard her since. And I am looking forward to the movie tremendously.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Not that it was awful. What I'd suppressed was the memory of how truly awful it was.

[ken-3k.livejournal.com]

aradiva and her singer friends brought Florence Foster Jenkins to my attention maybe 25 years ago -- her one album did get reissued on CD. So it's a bit surprising to remember that this is a new story to so many people.

And, as is usual for Hollywood, when multiple story ideas hit at the same time: there is a French movie on the Florence Foster Jenkins story, translated to Paris -- "Marguerite." And there has been a play, "Souvenir," which friends of ours saw locally. (Wikipedia says there have been FOUR plays on Florence Foster Jenkins.)

Diana Damrau is a delight. If you were so inclined, which you probably aren't, you might look for the Metropolitan Opera's video of "Le Comte Ory," which has Damrau as one of the three leads. Silly but fun fluff. Here's the final trio, when all three of the leads end up on one bed:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-_JV0tMgLA